Airy Mount

Coordinates: 38°01′37″N 84°46′31″W / 38.02699°N 84.77523°W / 38.02699; -84.77523
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Airy Mount
Airy Mount is located in Kentucky
Airy Mount
Airy Mount is located in the United States
Airy Mount
LocationOff U.S. Route 62 southwest of Versailles, Kentucky
Coordinates38°01′37″N 84°46′31″W / 38.02699°N 84.77523°W / 38.02699; -84.77523
Area3 acres (1.2 ha)
Builtc.1796
Architectural styleGeorgian
MPSCohen Mural Houses TR
NRHP reference No.78001417[1]
Added to NRHPNovember 15, 1978

Airy Mount, near Versailles, Kentucky, is a historic Georgian house dating from 1796. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[1]

It is notable for its mural painted by French immigrant "Alfred Cohen, who left Marseilles, France, with two brothers in the 1820s and settled in Midway, in the northeast corner of Woodford County. The three houses concerned are the only ones known anywhere to have been painted with murals by Cohen, a primitive artist who had little, if any, formal training. Although these landscape scenes show disregard for correct scale and perspective, they possess charm through the artist's lack of inhibitions."[2]

It is a "substantial residence, built in several stages, .. located one mile north of McCowan's Ferry Road in rural Woodford County. Appropriately named, the house is situated on the summit of a low, wide rise, and has a commanding view of the gently rolling landscape in all directions. The earliest portion, constructed ca. 1796, includes the western three bays of the central two-story block."[2][3]

The other two houses with Cohen murals are Wyndehurst and Pleasant Lawn, both also NRHP-listed.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c Daniel Kidd (January 1978). "National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation: Cohen Mural Houses". National Park Service. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  3. ^ "Sketch plan: Airy Mount". National Park Service. 1978. Retrieved April 1, 2018. With six photos from 1977.